Increase Your Profits
with an Effective Follow Up

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by Bob Leduc

Everybody knows that sales are vital to building a profitable business. But, few people understand the importance of maintaining a permanent reservoir of potential customers (I call them "hot prospects") from which sales can be made now or very soon. The majority of businesses put most of their time and effort into continually attracting new prospects. They spend very little or no time and effort on following up with previous prospects. Attracting new prospects is important. It's also expensive. Following up with previous prospects is important, too. In comparison with finding new prospects, it's very inexpensive.

If you're in business, don't overlook the "acres of diamonds" in your own backyard. You've already devoted the time and spent the money to attract these previous prospects. Most of them who haven't yet bought from you still have an interest in your product or service. It just wasn't convenient for them to take action at the time you communicated with them. You can still get business from these prospects if you stay in contact with them. The cost of getting business by following up with previous prospects will be very low in comparison to getting business by finding fresh, new prospects.

How do you handle these previous prospects to keep your name in front of them without becoming a pest? I'll give you two "real life" examples from my own experience. One is a traditional, postal mail technique. The other is an online, e-mail technique. Adapt either or both examples to your operation. You'll see an immediate increase in business with little or no expense.

Follow Up by Postal Mail

Before retiring, I was in the financial services sales business. Most of our business came from sales of life insurance and mutual funds. Because the client sees no immediate reward for buying life insurance or setting up an investment account, most people tend to delay taking action. There is never a right time to start. I became very proficient at staying in contact with potential clients. As a result, most of my new business came from prospects I met months or even years earlier.

Every 3 months I sent a postcard to each previous prospect offering them something of value. This was usually a free report or booklet of useful information related in some way to financial planning. The postcard kept my name in front of them. Plus, every time they responded to request the new information, I had another opportunity to talk with them about their financial planning. Best of all, the discussion was always conducted under favorable circumstances because they requested the communication. Not me.

If you implement this type of follow up, here are two suggestions:

1. Use postcards with just a brief message. They will get read by almost 100% of the recipients. Postcards are easy to print and they're very inexpensive. Plus, the postage for sending a postcard in the US is only 20 cents... and you get First Class Mail service.

2. Send approximately the same number of postcards every week instead of sending a large number at one time every few months. You don't want to generate 250 inquiries this week and none for the next 3 months. You won't be able to follow up on all of them while they are still "fresh". What you want is 20 inquiries per week every week so you can follow up with each one as soon as you get it... while they still have a high level of interest.

Follow Up by E-mail

The other example of successful follow up involves e-mail. Since retiring, I've written a manual and several reports that I sell on the Internet. E-mail inquiries go to one of my autoresponders or come directly to me. All of them receive an offer with a special price deadline about 15 days in the future. About half of the orders I get come from this first contact. However, the other half results from my follow ups. I use 2 methods of follow up:

1. Five days before the Special Price deadline, I send a brief e-mail message reminding the prospect that the Special Price Offer is about to expire. The reminder includes an offer to send another copy of the original message if the prospect doesn't have it. Only about 10%-15% request the information again. Almost all of them place an order.

2. Every 2 months I follow up again with a brief e-mail reminder of the original request and offer to send my current Special Price Offer if the prospect requests it. Usually 20%-30% will request it.

About 50% of my total sales results from inquiries generated by these 2 types of follow up messages. I would have only half as much business if I didn't send those follow up messages. What does it cost me to generate this additional business? Nothing. The money was already spent to get the
first reply.

Implementing a follow up procedure can substantially increase your volume of business. Because following up is so inexpensive, the business it produces is very profitable.